We are off and riding, plus getting to know everyone and starting a new routine. Yesterday was Day 1. 69 miles from Astoria to St. Helens. Well, as most of you know I have this very illogical fear of the downhills and Wow, they have massive uphills here. What goes up must go down. I thought I was going along pretty well, slow and steady, until mile 10. We had a nice uphill climb and when I looked at the downhill, I said NO WAY! Two of the trip leaders were with me and we tried to rationalize it for 10 minutes. Unfortunately, I had very little sleep the night before because I was so worried about the downhill (that I mentioned two days ago) at the end that I was having a mental breakdown. So I walked down the hill. Then rode for another 5 miles with Jeff, one of our awesome leaders. We did another great uphill climb and then there was the downhill. After much discussion, I walked again. It was pretty clear that if I continued at that pace I would be out there forever, so we decided that we would ride to mile 20 - I would get in our support van that would drive me to mile 50, so I would bypass the demon downhill that had me so anxious and then I would ride the final 20 miles. As you can imagine, I never expected to be in the van on Day 1. I was pretty upset and disappointed on so many levels and we debated my fate on the trip. Then I had some amazing pep talks from good friends and I decided to see how today went.
Everyone here is so supportive. Day 2 was 75 miles from St. Helens to Welches. And today was the reason I took this trip. We had a lot of diversity on the ride, starting with a 20 mile ride with tons of traffic on a very busy road. Then we did close to 30 miles on a beautiful trail along the Columbia River. The sun finally came out and it was wonderful. Then we ended with 25 miles of rolling uphills. Jeff rode with me on the final part to give me some guidance on the downhills. There was only one that was really huge but I made it down (very slowly for 4 miles!) What a difference a day makes!!! I feel so much better and received so many cheers from my co-riders that my confidence is building.
Tomorrow I'll write more about the daily schedule on the trip - things are beyond organized! Enjoy the pics below.
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| This is what a support stop AKA SAG looks like - tons of goodies |
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| Morning luggage load on our first day |
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| Mount Hood from our ride today |
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| Lunch stop at Calamity Jane's. Most of the riders came here. |
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| One of our support vans. We have three total. |
So glad that you made it past the fear of day 1 and had such a good day 2! Sounds like you have good support from the staff and your fellow riders. Keep smiling and trust yourself. What an amazing experience!
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